I just did a custom build m16 on sunday out of tokyo marui m4 and other random parts. The metal bushings i got seemed to not fit in. I double checked and saw the plastic ones just slipped in no problem.

Well good news yuhaoyang! They do fit!

you just need to be a tad aggressive. What i did was put a hard surface behind the mechbox casing, (in this case the floor @.@) and tapped it with a hammer on the flat surface of the bushing. They will fit very snug, but it doesn't matter!

I just did a custom build m16 on sunday out of tokyo marui m4 and other random parts. The metal bushings i got seemed to not fit in. I double checked and saw the plastic ones just slipped in no problem.

Well good news yuhaoyang! They do fit!

you just need to be a tad aggressive. What i did was put a hard surface behind the mechbox casing, (in this case the floor @.@) and tapped it with a hammer on the flat surface of the bushing. They will fit very snug, but it doesn't matter!

Try it out

I was agressive enough to severly damage one bushing (x shaped mark left on it)

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Quote:

Originally Posted by Deftonius

I'll bet Ronan was the one who sent that email.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wilson

The chinese steal everything. Haven't seen an original idea come out of that country yet.

I was agressive enough to severly damage one bushing (x shaped mark left on it)

I have no idea why you would even follow the advice to use the head of a screwdriver as a viable tapping device. You should have foreseen SOME type of damage happening, when you tap the relatively sharp edges of a hardened steel screwdriver head in to softer metal bushings. There are tons of better implements to use.
I wouldn't be surprised if you caused some smaller scale damage to the other bushings. Even small indents on them from the driver head could be enough to score the axles of your gears or the side that contacts the face of the bushing.

Lesson learned: consider the sources of "advice" you read on the internet.

Now that you've widened the holes in the gearbox for the Element bushings, you may find that any other bushing you install will end up being a bit loose. Hopefully not too loose, or you'll end up damaging your gears.

Hard plastic/rubber combo hammer is incredibly useful. Keep in mind that with some of the monkey metal stuff in airsoft, a good solid strong strike is sometimes better than repeated smacking with a lighter or non-metal hammer.

One of the most useful things I've found is using either channel lock pliers with soft jaws (usually UHMW covers) and c-clamp vices that exert a squeezing/gradual force rather than sharp force from a strike.